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Siemens appoints finance chief Kaeser as CEO

Siemens’ profit margin fell to 6.5 percent from 9.2 percent a year earlier, while revenues slipped 2 percent to 19.25 billion euros. But the company reported a 19 percent rise in new orders to 21.14 billion euros, thanks largely to a major British train contract. Siemens shares were 0.8 percent lower at 80.01 euros in Frankfurt trading after the announcements. Loescher, a company outsider hired in 2007 from drug company Merck & Co., Inc., helped Siemens move past a major corruption scandal. Siemens agreed to pay more than $1 billion in fines in Germany and the United States, for, among other charges, allegedly giving customers payments to secure business, especially internationally.

Serbia avoids early election with deal to oust finance minister

“The exit of the URS moves the coalition’s axis to the left, and reduces the chances of much needed reform,” Timothy Ash, Standard Bank analyst, wrote in a note on Wednesday. In early afternoon, the dinar currency traded at 113.95 to the euro, having earlier slipped to 114.28, prompting central bank intervention, traders said. A central bank spokeswoman confirmed the intervention, and said the amount of euros sold would be announced later in the day. Data published on Wednesday showed a slowdown in the economy, which grew just 0.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter compared with 2.1 percent in the first, according to a preliminary estimate. Dinkic has served as central bank governor, finance minister and economy minister under several administrations since the ouster of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, when the country began emerging from a decade of war and economic turmoil.